With the US presidential election less than two years away, there is much speculation over which Republicans will jockey for their party’s nomination and the opportunity to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. Since January three prospective candidates, eager to bolster their foreign policy credentials, have made trips to Israel. (Obama too came to Israel during his 2008 campaign, and he may return in the near future with an eye to 2012.) What follows is a brief look at some of the possible GOP contenders and their positions on...
The study analyzes the major developments in nuclear arms control and disarmament in the first two years of the Obama presidency, focusing on the impact of the new disarmament agenda on the nuclear nonproliferation regime. The essays compiled here probe the Obama administration’s at times conflicting emphases on nuclear arms control and disarmament, and their implications for deterrence and the determination to confront proliferators such as North Korea and Iran. Also explored here are international treaties for control and...
The 112th Congress, elected in November 2010, convened on January 5, 2011. Various Israeli elements have expressed satisfaction with the election results – a resounding defeat for the Democrats and President Obama and a rise in the GOP’s power – because they believe that Israel can take advantage of the Republicans’ achievement to curb undesirable ideas and initiatives by the administration. Time will tell if their assessment proves right.
There has recently been much discussion of the State of Israel’s “bleak diplomatic situation,” and a dismissal of Israel’s foreign policy over the last two years as a string of failures. The declaration by a number of South American countries that they recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders ostensibly proves this assertion.
The book includes seventeen analytical essays written by INSS and outside researchers. Focus is on Israel’s potential, at times at variance with US administration efforts, to navigate current and prospective national security challenges. The ongoing challenges represented by the Palestinian issue and Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions are well documented, as are implications of internal Israeli politics, Arabs in Israel, international terrorism, trends in Egypt and Lebanon, and other regional developments.
With elections in America and Israel and new governments emerging in both countries in 2009, changes in tone and substance in the bilateral relationship over the last year could have been expected. President Obama’s agenda of change, a critical factor in his election campaign, struck a resonant chord within America but touched foreign policy issues in different ways. There were strong elements of continuity to be found regarding Iraq and the surge policy finally adopted in Afghanistan, as well as other issues on the foreign...
Along with the presidency of the United States, Barack Obama inherited from his predecessor the most serious economic crisis facing the country since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But while confronting that crisis was his most urgent priority, Obama, unlike Franklin Delano Roosevelt, did not initially confine himself to the economy to the exclusion of almost all else. Of course, this was not just a matter of arbitrary preference. The world has changed beyond recognition since 1932. Roosevelt assumed the leadership of a potential...
On Wednesday evening, November 25, 2009, in a hastily arranged press conference, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a ten-month freeze on all new construction in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). The prime minister clarified that the freeze would not apply to construction that had already begun (where the foundation had already been laid), to the 2900 housing units for which permits had recently been issued, to essential public buildings, or to construction within the city limits of Jerusalem. The dramatic announcement by...
In her December 10 speech at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton surveyed the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in light of the administration’s failure to renew direct talks between the two parties. This failure has led to severe criticism of the Obama administration.
The hammering of the Democrats in both houses of Congress in the November 2 elections presents a challenge to the leaders directly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. President Obama will have to wrestle with dilemmas he faced before the elections, albeit with lesser intensity. In Washington lingo, President Obama is liable to become a lame duck whenever he seeks to advance initiatives that require the legislative process.
Israel, like other foreign countries, has always been careful not to be seen to interfere directly in American electoral politics. In 2010, as in all previous elections, the Israeli government studiously refrained from making any statement or gesture that could be interpreted as reflecting a partisan preference. Nevertheless, given the rather rocky relations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, it was widely suspected that Netanyahu would welcome a Republican victory that would devalue the...
